I'm in the midst of designing a SHIP, and decided I could make it Explorien themed. Make it white, have some trans-blue windows, throw the Explorien logo on there and then just work at making it look Explorienish.

Here's where it gets complicated: My friend is convinced that for it to be the Exploriens, I have to stay within their color scheme of white, black accents and a bit of grey. The trans-blue, he says, should be enough for extra color (and maybe a telescope or two, but this is micro scale so that is tough. It would have to be a trans-blue barrel and a trans-green stud at this size).

However, I really feel that more color is needed so it is not bland. A stripe or two of solid blue hidden behind some white 1x2 grill tiles should be fine, in my opinion. Maybe add a touch of yellow (because the logo has blue and yellow) but it would have to be discreet.

What say you all? What are distinct characteristics that are a part of the Exploriens (and what are not parts of them)?

Then there is the option to drop the Explorien theme, change the color up, and that would give me freedom to do designs on the sides and not worry about certain conformities...

Well I've got two things to say about this topic. 1) I think what you're saying about discrete yellow and blue accents could be good to break up solid white, but the black accents and shape should be enough to do that. What you said with the blue under white vents and the ship being microscale I would say make that trans-blue and call them windows. 2) you could go for a New Explorien remix style, which I think would keep with the architecture, but add greebling (gray) and make more defined use of the black accents, but I would still avoid actually using non-classic colors, take a look at the Explorien Starship (pretty sure that was the biggest kit) it actually had a lot of black lines on it as well as neon trans yellow exterior lights which I think may have broken up the shape too much. I would suggest using that as a loose color template, but give the accents more definition.